The Doll Collector

Chapter 11: The Doll Collector

I stared at the screen as Detective DeWitt's nationwide address was playing live. Everyone had been waiting for his address since the discovery of the mannequin this morning. From my observations, he had spent hours crafting the perfect message with the families. He wore a tired, yet smug face as he announced the identities of the first two mannequins and the newest to the collection. Charlotte Wilkes, Isabella Russo, and Evelyn Starks had been discovered. Barbara Connolly was not meant to be a secret, but a dutiful messenger. What a smart little man that Detective Adrian DeWitt. He loved being in the spotlight, didn't he? I chuckled to myself, relishing in knowing that he would never learn the identities of my first two creations: Abigail Wilson, and Mia Pearson.

They were two young girls, aged seventeen, best of friends, at the last group home I'd gone to before turning eighteen. I had just been transferred from another, after getting into a fight with two boys. I'd broken their noses and I had no regrets. My whole life, people had taken advantage of me and I swore it would never happen again. When I arrived, my reputation had preceded me, but the girls didn't seem fazed by the image of a troubled, violent boy. They were nice and  friendly, always sitting with me during our meals. I didn't speak a single word to them for a month, but never switched seats or told them to go away.

One night, a boy named Rick snuck into my room. He called himself the Warden of the group home: regulating, taking, and abusing everyone in sight. Whispers of the reason for my being in the group home followed me wherever I went, and he decided to target me after hearing what had been done to me. I suddenly awoke, immediately sensing someone approaching me, but before I could react, he pinned me down on my stomach. His knees were pressed into my back like sharp stakes. Terror filled my body as he began to pull down my pajama pants. The horror only intensified as I felt a breeze hit my skin. Adrenaline quickly numbed out the fear and I squirmed as hard as I could, but he was too strong.

Without warning, Rick toppled over and landed on the hard floor. Standing over him was Mia with a lamp in her hand. My eyes dropped down to his unconscious body. Abigail materialized out of the darkness and began dragging Rick out of the room back into his. Mia took my hand, whisking me away to their room. She shut the door behind her and went to help Abigail. They returned within ten minutes and locked the door. It was the only room with a working lock. I'd managed to go this long without speaking to anyone, but now I couldn't just keep my mouth shut. A string of gratitude poured out of me. I owed them my life. They both smiled and shrugged, assuring me that it had been nothing but an act of kindness.

We became inseparable following that incident, but one year later, I turned eighteen and was forced to leave the group home. They were only seventeen and couldn't come with me, so I went to see them every single day to make sure that they were okay, and that no one was bothering them. I didn't realize it until I left, but I was in love with Mia. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The way her eyes landed only on me when we were in a room full of people, made me feel warm and safe.

She was everything that I wasn't, yet she herself was damaged, like me. Her mother had sold her when she was twelve, to a man, in exchange for drugs. It almost sounded too typical, but the pain and darkness that consumed her eyes assured me that she was telling the truth. After all, I too, had been betrayed by my own mother. Mia suffered at his hands for two years until finally, she ran away, and was picked up by a social worker. She had been on the streets, selling herself to get by. Thanks to that man, it was the only thing she knew. Once at the group home, she met Abigail.

Abigail had always been quiet about her past, but Mia whispered it to me in the safety of their bedroom. Abigail was at the mercy of her own father. After her mother died in a car accident, her father was lonely and turned to his only daughter for comfort.